Bruins dominate Thrashers 4-0; Rask shuts out, Krejci shines
It's Tuukka Time! Ride this kid the rest of the way.
Apparently David Krejci is back. Krejci opened the game’s scoring in the middle of the first after a great job of solo-cycling behind the net. Krejci then posted himself on the back door and was able to disappear for just enough time to get in position. David also added a nifty assist halfway across the ice to Milan Lucic who promptly buried the game’s second goal. Given that I missed the first 40 minutes I’ll have to take other peoples observations for fact. My friend Steve said Krejci looked in last year’s form and from what little I saw on highlights and in the final period I’d have to agree.
Krejci sidenote: That line is looking good lately. Ryder, Wheeler, and David looked like they knew what they were doing all night. They had a bunch of crisp breakouts and odd-man rushes and cycled on the Thrashers for long stretches of time. This line has to be the Bruins best line if the B’s want to climb the ladder. It has the most natural talent and needs to start burying pucks. Tonight was a good start.
Scrolling down Boston.com’s Bruins homepage I saw a curious headline: ‘Sobotka’s energy has been pivotal’. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sobotka’s game but this is about as good as he’ll ever get. He’ll be a fourth liner for life and I think everyone’s okay with that. But saying that his energy has been pivotal to the Bruins in recent games is taking it a little too far. Sobotka has been good but it’s more about Lucic and Satan heating up and gelling. Of course, once Sobotka gets any sort of recognition from the media he gets hurt. I didn’t see it but hopefully it won’t be a big deal.
Speaking of Lucic, I thought he had a very strong and Milan Lucic-y game on Sunday against the Rangers. He was flying into his checks, getting in scrums after the whistle and being a general menace on the ice. Part of this is because the pressure and playing time has been reduced significantly. Lucic played less than 12 minutes in that game, allowing him to play a simpler game and it worked to great effect. If this is what it takes to get Lucic back to normal down the stretch than I’ll gladly accept that.
Before the game the Bruins downplayed the game’s hype saying that they needed to play a simple style of game. It sounded like the normal ‘nothing to see here’ type of comments that the NHL is known for. But the Bruins really did play a simple game. That’s where they succeeded last year, in simplicity and confidence. After reading the quotes from before the game and seeing the way they handled Atlanta, maybe they’re finally getting to where they want to be.
Are there still any Tim Thomas supporters out there? Does anyone really doubt that Tuukka is the back the Bruins need to (and can) jump on? For whatever reason I feel like the Bruins play more confidently in front of Rask. They know he won’t be diving around like an idiot and getting in bad positions if a rebound bounces far side. To use a football term, they can leave Tuukka on an island for a minute or two and he can handle it.
How large was that Chara goal with 3.5 left in the second period? That’s the kind of goal that the Bruins have been lacking, the kill shot. The Bruins have let teams stay in games all season long and its come back to bite them on more than a few occasions. It’s nice to see the killer instinct come back, even if they were a little lucky.
I like Seidenberg on the power-play. He provides that elusive accurate shot (here that Wideman) that the Bruins have lacked on the power-play for far too long. Seidenberg opens up the power-play by giving the men down low chances to tip shots and get rebounds. I like him and Bergeron on the point, they create some good movement.
Holy crap Steve Begin scored? He must have read my Sunday musings.
BruCrew 